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Q&A
Council Member Hudson questions NYC Aging on budget and programs
3:29:48
·
9 min
Council Member Crystal Hudson engages in a detailed Q&A session with representatives from the NYC Department for the Aging, focusing on the agency's budget, capital plan, and various programs. Key topics discussed include:
- NYC Aging's capital plan and funding for older adult center renovations
- The status of the agency's headquarters relocation
- Requests for increased funding for various programs
- Reimbursement rates for home-delivered meals
Additional points:
- The agency is advocating for increased meal reimbursement rates in ongoing negotiations
- There are no waiting lists for home-delivered meals, and reimbursements are processed promptly
- The agency faces challenges in capital project implementation due to charter limitations
Crystal Hudson
3:29:48
Despite the large number of facilities that make up NYC Aging's older adult provider network, NYC Aging's capital plan remains the smallest of all city agencies, totaling just $85,100,000 for fiscal twenty twenty five to '20 '20 '9.
3:30:03
The agency's executive capital commitment plan is only 8.6% greater than the preliminary capital commitment plan.
3:30:10
Two of the largest capital projects in the plan include $19,000,000 for the renovation of older adult centers and 28,400,000 for the relocation of NYC Aging's headquarters.
3:30:20
How many older adult centers are planned to be renovated with this $19,000,000 in capital funding?
3:30:51
19 projects?
3:30:52
19 capital
3:30:56
For the $19,000,000 The $19,000,000
3:31:13
Okay, so 15.
3:31:16
Has NYC Aging determined the locations to be renovated?
3:31:27
Do you know roughly how much will be allocated per location on average?
3:31:47
And what capital improvements are eligible with this funding?
3:32:29
Do you plan to advocate for increased funding for the capital plan?
3:32:33
And if so, how much additional funding is needed to adequately address the agency's capital needs?
3:33:31
But I would say whether or not you have oversight over the actual implementation, it would still be incumbent upon you to make the request for additional capital money for relevant projects.
3:33:42
So is that something that you would say that you would advocate for increased funding for the capital plan?
3:33:52
yeah.
3:33:52
Okay.
3:33:53
And then what's the current status of your headquarters relocation?
3:34:27
Okay.
3:34:28
Thank you.
3:34:30
Just a couple more questions, and I think we're going to move on to member questions.
3:34:35
During last year's preliminary budget hearing, NYC Aging testified on various new needs requests that were made to OMB.
3:34:41
This included new needs requests for case management and home care, which have still not been added to the budget.
3:34:47
Can you provide the committee with the budgetary requests that were made to OMB and the mayor as part of the executive plan process?
3:35:19
Okay.
3:35:20
Thank you.
3:35:20
And how are new need requests determined and how are metrics taken into account when making the requests?
3:35:49
And what's the current status of these requests?
3:35:52
We're in negotiations.
3:35:55
The council's fiscal twenty twenty six preliminary budget response called on the administration to add in baseline $7,300,000 for the home delivered meals program to bring the per meal reimbursement rate up to $15.31 from $13.78.
3:36:11
At adoption last year, 4,800,000.0 was added in baseline starting in fiscal twenty twenty five to increase reimbursement rates for home delivered meals.
3:36:19
The additional funding for a reimbursement rate increase was not included in the executive plan.
3:36:24
Is NYC Aging advocating for an increase to male reimbursement rates in the adopted plan?
3:36:52
Okay.
3:36:52
So taking that into consideration, what reimbursement rate would be appropriate and how much would such an increased cost?
3:37:16
Thank you.
3:37:17
How has the rollout of the current year's reimbursement rate been going?
3:37:33
Okay.
3:37:33
Have you received any feedback from providers?
3:38:15
Okay.
3:38:15
Thank you.
3:38:17
How many meals is NYC aging reimbursed so far in fiscal twenty twenty five?
3:38:28
For total?
3:38:29
Yes.
3:38:34
Four million?
3:38:43
And how many meals are pending reimbursement?
3:38:54
asking.
3:38:55
No, yes.
3:38:55
Thank you.
3:38:56
I appreciate it.
3:39:04
Five hundred ks per month.
3:39:11
what's delaying the reimbursements?
3:39:21
they
3:39:26
Right.
3:39:27
Okay.
3:39:31
Okay, great.
3:39:32
I'll turn it over to council member questions.
3:39:36
Thank you.
Jose Mercado
3:30:26
We responded to that in a January plan with the May so we sent a letter on May 2 that basically outlined all the money that was going to be spent.
3:31:02
It's around 15 projects.
3:31:03
If you look at the May 2 letter it outlines all the different projects.
3:31:18
They're in the letter, yes.
3:37:05
To $14.78.
3:37:22
So for HDM, so all providers have been paid retroactively from July 1 and prospectively as well.
3:37:37
Thank you, me.
3:37:38
They thanked us for the rate increase?
3:38:25
For HDM?
3:38:33
Yeah, 4,000,000.
3:38:46
Those are still being assessed.
3:38:56
It's okay.
3:38:57
We're basically looking close to another 500,000 meals per month.
3:39:02
Five hundred thousand.
3:39:07
Units.
3:39:07
And
3:39:13
Well they're basically being they're coming in.
3:39:15
So as they come in we pay them.
3:39:16
So we don't have for example we have no late invoices for HDM.
3:39:21
As soon
3:39:21
come in, less than thirty days, they get paid.
Lorraine Cortés-Vázquez
3:30:36
Yeah.
3:30:38
I believe there's 19 programs.
3:30:40
There's 19 programs that we are looking at.
3:30:43
But we also have $6,000,000 from that.
3:30:48
It doesn't include Reynosa's money, right?
3:30:53
That's what's on the books now.
3:31:20
Yes, we do.
3:31:33
So the range is from 180,000 to $6,000,000 Thank you.
3:31:44
One project is $6,000,000
3:31:52
Well, we give priority to health and safety issues.
3:31:56
And then we also look at the plan for the kitchen renovations, HVAC, because HVAC is very important to us because we serve as cooling centers also.
3:32:09
So those are the priority items.
3:32:12
But the goal is based on a conversation that we had and a commitment we had jointly last year was to come up with a master plan for creating state of
3:32:24
kitchens.
3:32:25
And that is still part of the plan.
3:32:28
Great.
3:32:39
The issue with capital for us, and I don't know if this is tangential to your question, but the issue with capital for us is that we are not the administrators of our capital.
3:32:50
I mean Right.
3:32:51
We manage the capital but we're not the administrators because the charter doesn't allow us to do that.
3:32:57
So we have a plan and we work with EDC and environment, EDP, EDP, economic development, who actually execute on us.
3:33:09
And then we are part of their queue.
3:33:12
If they have larger projects, our projects.
3:33:15
So once we could adjust that then we could have a better handle on how to move forward because we make plans and propose.
3:33:23
But we do not have oversight or ultimate responsibility for the implementation of that plan.
3:33:47
It's something that we would seriously look at and present,
3:34:02
We anticipate that the final decision will be made soon because it's important to three thirty people who work in the facilities that where we're housed now.
3:34:17
And we hope that that decision will be made soon so that this could happen early in the next year.
3:34:23
No later than early in the next year.
3:35:09
What I could do is submit to you after this hearing some of the new the unmet need requests that we have made.
3:35:26
The unmet needs because none of the NYC aging needs are new.
3:35:31
They are unmet given the population growth.
3:35:35
Those are unmet needs.
3:35:36
Those are determined based on a community care approach and ensuring that we have enough services to keep older adults in the community as as for as long as possible and so that they can thrive.
3:36:48
It's part of the current negotiations with OMB.
3:37:01
We looked at have we come up with a dollar amount from $13.78 to what?
3:37:06
To $14.78.
3:37:40
No.
3:37:41
But we no.
3:37:42
We have not received feedback on what their shortfall is.
3:37:46
It's something that we are always welcome in those conversations.
3:37:49
As you know, we have a monthly meeting with all of our providers.
3:37:52
And so if there were a definitive rate amount we would have heard that by now.
3:38:01
But we're looking at cost.
3:38:31
For HDM?
3:38:32
Yeah.
3:38:50
What do we anticipate the total yields to be?
3:38:53
Well, for I'm sorry, I'm
3:39:03
Per month.
3:39:21
as
3:39:24
As we have no waiting list for HDM either.
Rafael Salamanca, Jr.
3:32:23
the art
Althea V. Stevens
3:38:36
Yep.